BLOG TOUR & GIVEAWAY — A Firefighter’s Flame by Dani Hart

If you dig into the deepest parts of your soul, what would you find? Happiness, pain, love, regret, peace, sorrow? Now imagine experiencing all those feelings at once and then nothing at all. These were the average days in the life of Lennox. An unhealthy and unstable mind is further challenged when fate intervenes. One tragic moment will test her wavering strength and leave a permanent scar on her conscience. Follow her journey of rediscovery, falling in love, and searching for her own fairy-tale ending.

I signed up for this blog tour because I had seen the book and hype around. Naturally, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. However, I had no clue what to really expect from it – and boy, am I glad that I didn’t. I finished this book and immediately took to Twitter to communicate with Dani Hart. I honestly felt so wowed by it. I was in awe. I snickered, I ugly cried, I sympathized. It was such a beautiful, authentic tale. If I’m being honest, I love a good romance that is all heart and flowers because, really, who doesn’t want to escape real life. However, there’s also something so refreshing about reading a book that is more down to earth and realistic in its descriptions and feelings.

A Firefighter’s Flame isn’t really just a story – it’s a journey. Lennox is a mother, a firefighter’s wife, a friend, a daughter, etc. She plays all these roles, yet she is lost. She is so confused and conflicted by the events of her life and questions what fate has brought to her. I’ve been in her shoes where her heart and her soul feel so torn apart and the raw feelings of it were so spot on that it was uncanny. Rather than just reading these situations she gets put in though, you really experience them as a reader through the way Dani Hart writes them. She goes back and forth between time periods which helps to build the emotions and the sympathy for every character involved. When I first began seeing this pattern, I was nervous that it would be jumpy and not make much sense. However, because she does it as flashbacks or memories, it completely works with the story! It enhances the experience in a way.

I loved the male characters and how supportive they were. Yes, I wanted to slap them both from time to time, but it just made the book that much more interesting. I also had a serious love/hate relationship with Kylie – Lennox’s best friend. She did some pretty stupid things, but I felt like she always had good intentions and it never worked out in her favor. You really do grow to feel something for every character that is brought to light.

The book also taught me about the community and camaraderie that is often experienced in a firefighter’s life. It was a beautiful thing to see portrayed in these words. As a reader, I gained an even greater respect for these heroes and what they do, but also what their families are put through. Furthermore, I love that a light is shined on mental illness. We read so much as fantasy that we forget that things we come across DO happen in real life, and much more often than we realize. As someone who has bouts of minor depression, I could completely sympathize with the pictures being drawn of wanting to lay in bed or sleep all day, not wanting to clean the house, etc. You close up in this hole and although you may want to escape, the path to do so isn’t always clear. I thought these feelings and emotions were so accurately depicted that it was comforting in a way. It made a reader who experiences these feelings and thoughts not feel so alone, and I think that’s an extremely difficult emotion to express.

This book was added to my favorites list as soon as I finished it! Overall, it was heartwarming and REAL and I would absolutely recommend it to others to read! It’s not your average love story – but it’s about learning to love yourself. There were times I snickered and laughed, there were times I bawled my eyes out, serious ugly cry. There aren’t many books out there than can make you feel so many different things in such a short period, but this is definitely one of them. I really cannot wait to see what Dani Hart will come up with next!

Prologue

There was a time in my life when the light within me shined so brightly. At some point I lost it. I lost me. Life used to course through my veins like an out of control wildfire, unstoppable and infectious. Time was supposed to heal, but all it did was slowly strip me down to an empty vessel void of passion, desire, and drive. I wanted to scream, “Be the one to save me,” but my soul was drained, my heart was shattered, and time had siphoned the life out of me.

Dani’s passion for writing started at a very young age. It all started with a multitude of diaries, then as her passion grew she turned to poetry and short stories. She received her Bachelor’s Degree at USC in Theatre with an unofficial minor in writing. While at USC she wrote her first screenplay and post-graduation was fortunate to be hired to write another screenplay. As family life got busy her passion was pushed aside, but as she fell back into the love of reading her desire to write again increased, so she returned to it in the summer of 2013. She is currently working on a YA Urban Fantasy Romance series, The Life of Arie, with book 1 already published. You can connect with Dani through her website www.danihartbooks.com.

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I’ve always believed in fate and destiny especially. B, I actually think we were fated to be good friends 🙂 I didn’t get into your master’s year because I was meant to meet you in my master’s year and we were supposed to go to med school together ^__^. I know it’s cheesy but true.